A friend of mine convinced me (in about 5 minutes) to join her and others in venturing out for Conquest 2013 from the US. I'm really excited to be coming out for this after hearing some great things from past participants. I had a few sets of questions though....

1: I'm reading through the rules and I see that I can bring a character I play from another LARP, that's great! I love playing that character and would love to play him here as well. The examples given in the rules pdf talk about a character who has played for 50 days having 35 experience points to spend. Is that the maximum a character can have from previous play time? Do I need to bring documentation of some kind to prove these days?

2: How much cash should I bring for spending while at the event? I am assuming there will be people selling costuming/props/food/drink/etc and I'd like to make sure I have enough to maybe purchase some things while I am there.

3: Weapons/Armor are a bit difficult to transport on a plane, are there any available services to maybe rent a weapon or two for the event or perhaps a recommendation for merchants who could have them available to me at the event?

I'm sure I'll come up with more as I dive deeper into the rule book and continue to plan for the trip. All help is greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
Dave

Hey Dave,

for the first question I'm not pretty shure. As I started only Mythodeacons where counting for the XP. BUt I don't know if that changed.

The second question is easier to answer. Think about what you want to buy there. You can survive with 50€. (simple food and some drinks)
Normally I spent 200€ there. (some clothes, food and other usefull things). When you'll buy a full plate armour you need far more.

I think nobody will rent you a weapon. But you could buy a cheap one in the stores. There are first day sales and other actions so you can get a simple weapon for maybe 30€.

Greets from good old Germany and sorry for my English

Heya Dave

As Harun states you can live pretty comfortably on 10-15 Euro a day for just food and drink. Food and drink set aside, I usually spend 200-300 Euro on gear, but much of this are stuff I would have bought anyway, buying it at Conquest just saves me the shipping and customs fees.

there are no official group/shop/organization that rent out weapons, but maybe if you are joining a group or camp with european people who are able to bring more stuff, you will be able to sort something out with people in your group/camp.
I Live in such a remote place I have had to find clever ways to transport LARP weapons on airplanes. My best (if somewhat expensive) solution is large, rigid rifle cases for swords, axes etc, and "Bazooka" type fishing rod tubes for spears and other slender polearms.

Concerning the rules:
You get half an experience point per played day, with no limit. so someone who has played a character for 300 days gets 150 xp (plus the 10 you get extra to start your character).
since character check-in is optional, regularily nobody will take a look at any documentation of your played time, but if you have an outrageous amount of xp, sometimes the SL will want to do at least a partial check on the amount of playtime you did with that character. if you have less than 100 days with that character, nobody really cares much, and if you don't exactly do anything outrageous with your xp, nobody will care either.
brining the documentation never hurts, but if it's a matter of carrying a "useless" stack of papers around the globe, you can also leave them at home.

Thanks for the answers everyone! They really help in planning.

Hi!

You could join the Grand Expedition. The expedition has been created to offer poeple like you
an easy start. You pay 200 euros(don't know the exact amount). This includes
tents, ticket, food (prepared meals), wood, even beds. Our members come from
all over the world, USA, Israel, New zealand, Australia...
We can organize your transfer from airport to the site if needed.
And we could share some stuff like armor, that's always hard to get
on a plane.

You can read a bit about us in this forum. Look for 'grand expedition'
or romeowhiskeyone, our leader/organizer.
Or just ask me